A tribute to Mimmo Jodice and more, May 22-June 15 in France

(by Aurora Bergamini)
(ANSA) - Rome, March 7 - Contemporary Italian photography
takes center stage at the fourth edition of the Photomed
festival, to be held from May 22 to June 15 in the coastal town
of Sanary-sur-Mer, the island of Bandol and the city of
Toulouse, in the south of France.
The guest of honor this year is 80-year-old Mimmo Jodice,
an internationally renowned photographer who hails from Naples
and who has in the past collaborated with art stars such as Andy
Warhol and Michelangelo Pistoletto.

The aim of the festival, he said, is to bring together
photographic talents from around the Mediterranean Basin, and to
promote cultural links between them. This year, there are 21
photographers on show.

"The Jodice retrospective at the Hotel des Arts in Toulouse
will span six decades, including his images of ancient
sculptures and seascapes, which explore his relationship with
time and space as well as the origins of the Mediterranean
world. Jodice's landscapes and seascapes are a bridge between
antiquity and a timeless, seemingly eternal present", Edwards
said.

"Italy is a very important country in the history of
Mediterranean photography. Last year we also paid tribute to
Gabriele Basilico.
"It's about time Italy also had its own great
center or museum of Italian photography", he added.

Other Italian photographers at this year's Photomed include
Stefano De Luigi with an exhibition titled 'iDyssey', which
premiered last year in Milan and which retraces the Odyssey with
an iPhone, and Paolo Verzone, who explores the issue of European
identity by documenting the daily lives of military cadets
around the Mediterranean.
The Dreams and Visions section features work by Silvia
Camporesi, Simona Ghizzoni and Beatrice Pediconi, offering their
interpretation of life both real and imaginary, while the
Scenes from Daily Life category includes pictures of Italy's
city squares by Massimo Siragusa and portraits of people at the
beach by Fabrizio Bellomo.

The festival also includes nocturnal landscapes by Barbara
Luisi (Dreamland), marine horizons and border areas between
islands and continents by Sandra Rocha (Waterline), and the
martyrs of Tahrir Square by Denis Dailleux.
There are also portraits of Moroccans by Leila Alaoui, a
reportage on single mothers in Algeria by Arslane Bestaoui, the
Baroque churches of Croatia and Slovenia by Keiichi Tahara, and
the Roman experience of Francois Delebeque.